


my head is an animal

by SnorkleShit



Series: I thought of angels (choking on their halos) [11]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Blake is both impressed and unimpressed at the same time, Cardin Winchester is a Faunus, Cardin really isn't the brightest lightbulb in the box, Faunus!Cardin, Field Trip, Multi, Ozpin being aloof as ever, Shirtless Cardin is pretty much just a thing now, Team Dynamics, Team Pair Ups, mission
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-07-23
Packaged: 2018-04-10 21:08:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4407722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnorkleShit/pseuds/SnorkleShit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ozpin has a secret agenda and Cardin doesn't really think before he acts. Team AWESOME becomes a thing, and Yang is hellbent on keeping it a thing, because who doesn't love giving their friend group an official name?</p>
            </blockquote>





	my head is an animal

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saph/gifts).



> SOUNDTRACK:
> 
> http://8tracks.com/snorkletuckington/letting-people-down-is-my-thing-baby

"Your mission today is to demonstrate teamwork and adaptation to unusual circumstances in the field of battle in order to achieve your objective. Your teams will be paired with another team and you will all work together. You're objective is to simply get to the top of the mountain together while having demonstrated these qualities throughout the inevitable battles with Grimm. After we call roll and assign your team partnerships, you will load onto the air carriers and be transported to Mount Ashlight, and the surrounding Shadow Woods. This area is invested with Grimm and we will be watching your actions the entire time." Glynda tapped her riding crop against the side of her leg idly as she spoke with authority from the stage, Ozpin standing behind her sipping his coffee.

Everyone nodded mutely as they stood watching her.

"Very good. Now, everyone gets in rows according to teams, with your leaders at the front." She commanded. Like the tide had broken, students began to surge in different directions. Ruby spun around, fist in the air.

"TEEEAAAM RWBY, ASSEMBLE!" She exclaimed in excitement. Yang, Weiss and Blake all snapped to stand in a line behind her. 

"Hey, why do you get to stand second?" Weiss demanded. Yang shrugged primly and flipped her hair.

"Being the leader's sister gets you certain perks, Ice Queen." She replied haughtily, trying to pose like Weiss always did.

Weiss frowned. "But _I'm_ her girlfriend!" 

"Oh, so I get the end of the stick either way?" Blake said dryly from behind her. 

Yang snickered. "Yeah, try telling that to Sun. He still hasn't gotten the message that you don't want _any_ part of his stick."

Blake shrugged, and Weiss huffed. "Oh, whatever, you don't even care about being in front!"

Ruby waved her hands. "Ladies, ladies, there's enough of me to go around!"

From a few rows down, Jaune frowned and turned to his team behind him. 

"Why don't you guys fight over who gets to be next to me?" He pouted.

"Oh, we do, just not when you're around." Pyrrha assured him, earning an eye roll from Ren behind her. Nora poked her head out from behind Ren, and snickered.

"Besides, we all know who _really_ wants to be next to him!" She said, wiggling her eyebrows.

Jaune turned the full way around, eyes wide.  
"Wait, really? Who?"

Nora just giggled, and Pyrrha shrugged. Ren looked down at his shoes.

"Guyyyysss, are you messing with me? That's just mean! Or are you not? Teeeeeellll meeeee!" He exclaimed in desperation. Pyrrha's eyes widened, and she grabbed Jaune and turned him around.

"Be quiet, Goodwitch is coming our way!" 

Jaune swallowed nervously. "Aw, man, she hates me..."

"No she doesn't, now stand up straight!" Pyrrha hissed in his ear. He did so, standing at full attention as she passed. She spared them a single glance and marked them all down on her tablet. 

"Team JNPR, fully accounted for. You will be working with Team RWBY." She announced, earning an excited exclamation from Nora and Ruby alike. She continued on, announcing team assignments as she typed on her scroll.

"Team LUNA, you're missing a member." She observed when she came to stand in front of them. 

"Arthur is sick, Miss Goodwitch. But Gawaina, Galahad and I are more than capable of carrying out this mission without him." Their leader, Lance, informed her. She nodded.

"You will be working with Team NIYT, who are...fully accounted for." She said, and took a step past them. Her eyes narrowed as she came to the second to last row. Which wasn't a row at all, as it was just Cardin standing there, staring straight ahead. Everyone turned to stare, and Jaune cringed.

"Oh, he's dead meat..." Yang whispered in sympathy.

"Mr. Winchester, where is your team?" She demanded.

He kept staring straight ahead, chin held high.

"I take full responsibility for their absence, Miss Goodwitch." He announced, instead of answering her question. She huffed, and pressed a button on her scroll.

"Very well. Instead of going on this mission you'll be scrubbing the locker room down, for your incompetence as a leader. I'll assign Oobleck to supervi-" She began to say, but suddenly Ozpin was standing next to her, and she stopped.

"Not so fast, Glynda. Cardin will be assigned to work with Team JNPR and Team RWBY, and the absent members of Team CRDL will be scrubbing the locker room down." He said calmly. She raised an eyebrow.

"Very well….However, wouldn't it be more appropriate to assign him to LUNA and NIYT, since they're short a member?" She asked.

Ozpin sipped his coffee. "This exercise is about unusual circumstances. Why not give both team pairings a chance to adapt to an uneven number?" He asked. Glynda nodded and clicked some buttons on her scroll, and they both turned away from Cardin.

"Very well, Cardin will be with the JNPR/RWBY combo. Team GOLD and Team IONN-" 

"Excuse me, sir?" Cardin interrupted. Ozpin turned back to look at him over the edges of his glasses.

"Yes?"

Cardin swallowed. "I am the leader of Team CRDL, it's my responsibility to keep my team in line. I shouldn't be rewarded for failing in that." He said, eyebrows furrowed.

Ozpin nodded. "That is correct, young man. However, it is also their responsibility as your teammates to be there for you when you need them. I made you the leader of CRDL for a reason, Mr. Winchester. You're recent revelation of heritage has done nothing to change my mind. Quite the opposite. Now, go join your temporary team and get ready to go." He said, then turned on his heel and kept walking with Glynda down the line of rows. Everyone was still staring at him, and he felt his skin crawl under their gaze. He turned and hurried towards Team RWBY, who were closest. Weiss huffed, and Yang punched him on the shoulder

"Welcome to the best team ever, Bird Boy." She said with a wide smile. He frowned at the nickname, but didn't say anything. From the other side of the room Glynda announced for them to disperse and head to the air carriers. As everyone began to move, Team JNPR and Team RWBY moved towards each other, Cardin trailing behind them. Nora bolted forward and attack hugged him.

"THIS IS GONNA BE THE BEST FIELD TRIP _EVER_!" She shouted. He stumbled awkwardly, and then patted her on the back with an awkward smile that ended up looking more like a grimace. 

\--------

"Where are the others?" Blake shouted. 

"I don't know, they must have ran the other way!" Jaune shouted back. He made the mistake of turning towards Blake as he did so, and was struck across the back by a strong swipe from the Giant Ursa they were fighting. The strength of the blow sent him flying over the trees, flailing and yelling as he crashed into the foliage a ways away. Blake backflipped out of the way, and cursed. 

"Jaune! God damnit!" Cardin exclaimed from the other side of her, rolling to avoid the blow. This Ursa was bigger than any of them had ever seen, even bigger than the one Jaune had saved him from. Now it was just him and Blake, and the girl didn't even seem to acknowledge his existence. 

"We should-" He started to yell to her, but she ignored him and dove forward, lashing out with her sword. She slashed it a few times across the chest, before it roared and slammed it's paw into her. She went flying to the left but managed to roll and land in a crouch next to Cardin. Cardin stared at her in shock- specifically, at the top of her head. She glared at him, finally seeming to realize he was here.

"What are you looking at?" She snapped angrily. He couldn't take his eyes off the top of her head.

"Ears." He managed to get out, voice strangely high pitched. Her eyes widened, and she reached up to feel for her bow- which wasn't there. Just her cat ears, in plain sight. 

"My-!" She exclaimed, whipping to look at the Ursa. A black streak dangled from in between its large claws.

Cardin followed her gaze and saw the bow. Such a simple piece of cloth to hides something so big- she was a Faunus? A Faunus, in hiding. 

_Just like me._

He turned to stare at her again, but then multiple screams sounded from somewhere to the far right. The Ursa's nose turned towards the noise, sniffing, before taking off in the direction. 

Taking Blake's bow with it. Everyone was going to find out she was a Faunus if she couldn't cover her ears by the time they met up with the other teams. He remembered how it felt, remembered Coco holding up the testing strip and suddenly he had no choice but to be a freak. He may have deserved to be forcefully shoved out of hiding, but Blake didn't. As far as he knew, at least.  
Maybe they could rip up some fabric? But then everyone would question it even more. No, he had to get that bow back, before everyone saw her ears. Just like they had helped him get into his dorm before everyone saw his scars.

"Stay here, I'll get it!" He exclaimed, having come to a decision, and then he took off after the Ursa before she could reply. He raced through the woods, following its trail like a man on a mission.

Blake watched him go in confusion, but he was gone before she could think to stop him. Alone in the clearing, she stood and pulled another black ribbon from her pocket. She tied it in a bow around her ears before sheathing her blade and racing off in the direction Jaune had fallen.

\-----------

"He _what?_ " Ruby exclaimed. Blake shook her head.

"I don't understand either, but he just ran after it. I got Jaune down from the tree and we came to find you." She explained. "He was following it to the east, towards the ravine and the cliffs."

"By the ruins?" Ren asked. Blake nodded.

"That Ursa was huge and he has a shitty aura, he's gonna get himself killed!" Jaune exclaimed.

"So?" Weiss snapped. Everyone turned to look at her. After a moment she sighed.

"Fine, lets go save his stupid butt. We'd fail the mission if we didn't, anyways."

\-----

In hindsight, chasing after a Colossal Ursa alone may not have been his _greatest_ idea ever, but it was too late now. They'd left the trees behind and where brawling in the clear area next to the cliffside, which made Cardin particularly nervous. He was terrified of falling, ironically.

The Ursa batted him back and he slammed into the ground, groaning. His forehead was bleeding, he knew. He pushed himself up, and then fell back down. His armor had caved in again, the metal must be weakened where the others had tried to fix it. He wheeze as it pinched his torso, and he dropped his mace so he could scramble to undo the clasps. His armor fell away and he could breath again- only for the Ursa to kick him upward and slam him back-first into the tree line. His undershirt snagged on a branch and tore as he fell down. Luckily, he managed to hit the ground rolling and come up standing, but his shirt was practically falling off of him. 

"Oh, fuck it." He cursed as he ripped it off of him. It seemed he was just doomed to be shirtless. Whoop-dee-doo. He breathed in deep and raced forward. The Ursa went to swipe over him but he dove down, grabbing his mace as he rolled between the thing’s legs and came up standing behind it. He smashed the mace against one of it's knees, causing it to crumble, and start to fall backwards. He dove to the side as it fell over the cliff face. 

But- it still had Blake's bow in it's claws. Cardin shouted a curse to the sky as he dove after it, feet first. He landed with a thud on the thing’s stomach, and it roared, trying to swipe at him but not being able to reach as it hurtled towards the ground. Cardin ripped the black ribbon out of its claws and then shot a burst of fire out of his mace towards it's chest as he jumped upwards as hard as he could. He went flying upwards and twisted in midair, reaching with the hand holding the bow towards the cliff face. He managed to grasp the edge of the top, and slammed painfully into the rock face. He groaned, and tossed his mace onto the surface, crying out as he hoisted himself up and rolled onto the ground. He took a few deep breaths, and pushed himself into a sitting position. His nose was bleeding, and it felt broken. But the minute he reached a hand up towards it, his face grew hot and it stopped hurting. He frowned and felt along it- it suddenly felt fine. Must have been a fluke, a reaction to the stress.

"Cardin!" A familiar voice shouted. He turned to see Team RWBY and Team JNPR racing towards him, Jaune in the front. Jaune slide to his knees next to Cardin.

"Holy shit, are you okay?" He exclaimed.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Cardin shrugged.

" _Fine?_ You just fell off a cliff!" Jaune exclaimed. But Cardin wasn't listening- he was staring up at Blake. Blake. Who was wearing a bow. 

She frowned down at him. "Why did you do that? I had extra ones." She demanded.

Extra ones. "I...didn't think of that." He stammered.

"They all know." She said, jerking her head towards the others.

"Know what?" Jaune asked nervously.

"Oh, please, I know they told you I'm a Faunus." Blake said, not taking her hard gaze away from Cardin. Ruby laughed nervously.

"Why did you get my bow back?" She demanded of Cardin, almost angry looking. Cardin blinked at her, then looked down at the bow in his hand.

"I thought it was the only one you had." He said.

"So?" She asked. He looked back up at her. They were all staring at him.

"I didn't want you to...have to go through what I did. I mean, you shouldn’t have to have everyone know if you don't want to. It isn't cool." He shrugged, trying to sound as casual as possible. He reached to hand her bow back up to her. She kept staring down at him, before she reached out to take the bow and tucked it in her pocket. Then she reached her hand back out and wrapped it in Cardin's, and yanked him to his feet. He stumbled upward, then stood up straight. She was stronger than she looked. She was still giving that hard, unreadable gaze.

"You don't deserve it either." She said firmly, before turning and walking away. Ruby picked up his armor pieces.

"These really aren't good enough for a hunter of your level. You need new armor." She said, running her hands over the stresses in the metal.

"Ohhh, I know just the guy for that!" Yang exclaimed as they all started to walk towards the tree again. 

"I think she means legally bought armor, Yang." Prryha said.

"Ahh, that's no fun." Yang pouted. 

“Why would you _illegally_ buy armour?” Weiss inquired. Yang winked at her and didn’t respond. Jaune looked over Cardin.

"You're shirt-" Jaune said.

"Oh, no!" Ruby said. Everyone stopped and turned to look at him.

"Want to wear my hood? It'll look funny, but it's long enough to cover your...you know..." Ruby offered awkwardly. 

"No. They all know anyways. It's fine." Cardin said, and held his chin high as he started to walk with them. 

"Let's go get to the top of the mountain! Team AWESOME is on its way!" Ruby exclaimed in excitement.

"That doesn't have any of our initials." Jaune said in confusion.

"No, but it's accurate!" Yang said, pulling her sunglasses out of nowhere.

\----------

They loaded off the air carrier and headed down the cobble path towards the school, Cardin nodding along as Ruby explained some weapons theory to the group. Christ, she could talk fast. As they passed Team Luna, Galahad sneered at him as he passed, eyeing his scars blatantly.

"Did it hurt when they chopped you up, Mincemeat?" He called mockingly. 

Cardin balled his hands into fists and turned to respond, but before he could get a word out, Blake stuck out a leg and tripped the boy. Before he could hit the ground, Pyrrha grabbed the back of his shirt and flipped him into the nearby trashcan, and everyone kept walking as if nothing had happened. 

He stayed put, and after a moment they stopped and looked back at him.

"You coming, Cliff Jumper?" Yang called.

Cardin nodded, then walked over to where Galahad was struggling to get out of the can. Galahad stared up at him. Cardin grabbed him, lifted him out and dropped him on the ground.

"For your information, I would be more than happy to show you how much it hurts to lose your limbs if you ever open your fucking mouth to me again." 

Galahad stared up at him silently, and Cardin left without another word, a strange pride rippling under his skin. A pride that, for once in his life, came with no guilt attached.

 

\-------------

 

"This is such bullshi-" Lark started to say, but Oobleck held up a finger.

"Language, boys." He said primly. Lark sneered and went back to moving the mop over the floor, grumbling. The door opened behind Oobleck, and he turned, eyes widening in surprise.

"Mr. Winchester. I would have expected you to be celebrating your success with your teams." He said. Cardin strolled forward, shrugging, in a t shirt and jeans. 

"You've got lessons to plan, sir. They're my team, I can supervise them just fine." He said. Oobleck nodded.

"Professor Ozpin trusts you, so I will too." He said, and stepped for the door. Then he paused, and turned to face Cardin again.

"May I ask a rather personal question, Mr. Winchester?" He said softly.

Cardin frowned. "That depends on the question."

"I'm sorry, but my thirst for knowledge is often a vice. I can't help but wonder- do you know what species of aerial Faunus you are?" He asked.

Cardin stiffened, and swallowed thickly, fully aware his team was watching. Part of him wanted to tell Oobleck to fuck off, but he bite it back.

"I don't. I was told my mother had her wings removed at birth as well, like you said in class. I've never really...thought about it." He admitted, frowning deeper. 

Oobleck nodded. "Truly tragic. And she never sought a healer to regrow them?"

Cardin look up at him. "What? They can do that?"

"I talked about it at length in class, Mr. Winchester. You should pay more attention. They're are many healers in the world with healing semblances so refined they often regrow amputated Faunus attributes. I could contact one for you, if that's something you wish to pursue." Oobleck told him. Cardin stared at him, slightly taken aback. Something twisted deep in him, the same thing that had recoiled when Nora asked him if he missed his wings. 

"No. I don't want them. And I don't want to know what species I am." He responded firmly. Oobleck turned back towards the door. He heard Dove snort, but ignored it. 

"Very well. Have a nice night, team CRDL." He said, and then he was gone. Cardin turned towards the other boys, who were all glaring at him.

"Come to gloat?" Russell snapped. Cardin breathed in deep, preparing himself for this. 

"No. I came to apologize." He announced. Russell sat back on his haunches.

"Pigs must be flying! Unlike you." He snapped.

Cardin gritted his teeth, but ignored the crack. "I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you. I shouldn't take it out on anyone but especially not you guys. I'm sorry. You had every right to leave."

They were all silent for a moment, and the aggression slowly seemed to leave their stances.

"No, we shouldn't have, it was a dick move. And now we're paying for it." Lark muttered, gesturing at the bucket full of sponges next to him. Cardin got down on his knees and grabbed a sponge.

"Yeah, but we'll pay for it as a team." He said, starting to scrub the locker Lark hadn't reached yet. They all nodded and resumed their work.

"So, they stuck you with...what are those guys calling themselves now?" Russell asked. Cardin smiled to himself.

"Team AWESOME. Yeah. It went pretty well." He told them. If falling off a cliff could be called _going well_. Although, he seemed to have earned Blake’s approval. That was something.

"More like it went FUCKING GREAT!" A voice shouted from beyond them, causing them all to turn. Yang and Blake stood in the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" Cardin asked.

"I had a feeling you wouldn't let them slave away alone, and I didn't have anything else to do." Blake said, holding up a mop. 

"You don't have to-" Dove started, but Lark slapped him on the arm.

"Never turn down help from a hot chick, idiot!" He hissed.

"She's off limits, fellas. Whereas I am here just to be admired and keep up you're poor spirits!" Yang exclaimed, smiling as she laid down across a bench and bite into an apple she'd brought. Blake started to mop in the far corner, and Russell grinned.

"Does this mean we're part of Team AWESOME?" He asked.

"No, only Cardin is." Yang replied.

"What? Why?" Lark asked.

"Because you have to earn your way into Team AWESOME, duh." Yang replied.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! And thanks to my lovely sarcastissa for being a great friend and beta and putting up with my trash bird boy au!


End file.
